Oromendur: Yule Cheer

[oromendur]

 

YULETIDE GREETINGS TO ALL!

 

On 12/5/2019 at 3:28 PM, oromendur said:

Just one small and lost Adventurer here, wandering into what appears to be a VERY big holiday party  I'm a mythologist, a Tolkien scholar, and a traveler, among many other things; in a previous challenge I described myself as "an inactive reserve military officer, an occasional musician, a somewhat lapsed medievalist, a keen ballroom dancer, a semi-skilled hiker and moderate wilderness junkie, a former network and RF engineer, and an inveterate seeker of experience," and I guess that's all still more or less true

 

This quote from last year's holiday challenge should serve well enough as my introduction. Naturally, like everyone else, I've struggled to hold on to who I really am in this nightmare year (which is why it was all just too much trouble to write another intro, to be honest). Once the plague cancelled pretty much most of Western civilization, my normal and regular travel, ballroom dancing, and hiking fell off quite precipitously, leaving me with nothing much to do but worry. I guess will add 'writer' to that list of self-definitions, though, as that's pretty much the only thing constructive I've managed to do since the spring

 

For the next three weeks, I intend (as I did last year) to absolutely drown my sorrows in the joy and festivities of the holiday season. I love this time of year. Goodness knows there's been little enough to celebrate, and while I could quite justifiably fall into a trap of 'why bother' and 'this sucks like the rest of the year did,' I'm going to do my best not to, and I'm going to use this huge party of a holiday challenge to help me stick to that goal. 

 

I've decided on a few daily and weekly intentions for the next few weeks.  

 

Every day, I will ask myself two questions. One: is my PAI score over 100? Two: did I go outside? In-depth discussion of daily goals, spoilered for length:

Spoiler

 

PAI: I wear a fitness tracker that uses an algorithm to spit out a number based on time spent in heart rate zones. (Here's the PubMed link to the Norwegian NTNU Trondheim study that first established it as a thing, for anybody who might be interested.) I'm in the process of transitioning from my crappy old MIO Slice tracker (which is pretty much obsolete technology but I really like the app) to a new FitBit one (which is admittedly much better but the PAI app is just such CRAP ). Wearing two trackers is starting to wear on me (ha ha I'm punny) but I'm going to suck it up until the end of the month so that I will have a full year of PAI data using the same measurement standards (yes, I do have mild OCD and completionist issues, why do you ask?). I'll transition at the new year to the FitBit standard and use it going forward.

 

Anyway. That was a lot of infodump. TL/DR: my goal is 100 every day. I was going to make my goal to end the year with a daily average above 100, but I just checked and (due to some significant overachievement related to a long visit I just made to friends in the English countryside) it could be zero every day for the rest of the month and I'd still meet that standard, which is, well, not terribly motivating. So daily PAI it is

 

Outside: So while I was in England, I got outside almost every day for two straight months. In England. IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER. Seriously, that is a lot of rain to have falling on your head every single day... But I returned from that trip last Thursday, and other than a quick trip to buy pizza toppings I haven't left the house. Not once. Even though I'm in Southern California. Where it's sunny and 70° F/22° C every single day. Under a gorgeous blueberry sky. Seriously, I don't know what's wrong with me (sigh) Now while I won't be here very long (I have another plague-protocol trip scheduled to my sister's place for a low-key family Christmas), I want a bit of motivation to break this horrid cycle that kicked my butt so badly all year long. So I'm setting an intention to go outside for at least ten minutes every day. Lunch on the deck in the sunshine counts, as do walks in the canyon or puttering around the yard. Walking to the car to go grocery shopping explicitly does not.

 

 

Every week, I will ask myself two questions: One: did I share some sort of #YuleCheer on Instagram or here? Two: did I complete my Yuletide task? Further discussion also spoilered for length:

Spoiler

 

#YuleCheer: I did this last year and it was awesome. Although it's not really trendy to admit this anymore, and although I will condemn as powerfully as the next person the ugly commercialization of it all, I still really do love this season. I love the music, the decorations, the celebrations of winter, the closing out of one year (don't let the door hit you on the way out 2020) and the setting of intentions for a new one (may it be better, because I seriously don't want to contemplate worse). So I'm going to make a conscious effort to capture and share the moments that make me feel that happy holiday spirit, because goodness knows we can all use some happy moments right now! At least three times per week is the goal, but more is better.

 

Yuletide tasks: Desperate times call for desperate measures, so I am also going to go just a little bit extra in the next three weeks.

 

Week One Yuletide Task: PUT UP A CHRISTMAS TREE. This is my twelfth Christmas in this house and, despite the fact that I absolutely love the whole season, and despite the fact that during more than half of those dozen years I have been visiting European Christmas markets and buying lovely handmade decorations every autumn, I have never actually decorated for Christmas since moving here. I always go to my sister's and so it has always just seemed like too much trouble. But THIS is the year I am going to break out of whatever lassitude spell this place is able to cast on me. I AM GOING TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. I even bought a new tree I couldn't really afford to make certain that I have the proper motivation. (The fact that this goal will require me to clean up my disaster of a living room enough to be able to install and enjoy said tree is not accidental -- but neither is it primary, because housecleaning goals have thus far proven to be one-way tickets to fail-land this year.)

 

Week Two Yuletide Task: SEND HOLIDAY CARDS. Back in the day I used to enjoy drafting a long newsy letter to my friends and family and enclosing it in a tasteful and ecumenical holiday card. For various reasons -- military deployments, mostly, and house issues, and grad school, and probably a thousand other excuses -- I haven't done this in, hm, maybe fifteen years (!). I'm going to keep the list very small, but I think that if there is any year where people need something concrete in their hands to know I'm thinking about them and I love them, this is the year. I have lots of leftover cards, and I think there's even one or two sheets of old holiday stamps in the pile, so I'm going to draft something nice and send it out in Week Two before I head off on my trip.

 

Week Three Yuletide Task: MAKE CHRISTMAS COOKIES. This usually happens at my sister's anyway, but I just want to add some public motivation just to make sure, in case everyone has been beaten down by the awful year. Because, seriously, cookies!

 

 

So, there we are. Holiday goals for a holiday challenge. Fitness and health and all that stuff can just wait for the new energy of the New Year -- the next few weeks are all about my own efforts to ensure a much happier Yule season than I really have any reason to hope for

 

Quote

"Great stores of goods and food, and beer, were found that had been hidden away...so that there was a great deal better cheer that Yule than anyone had hoped for." (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King)

 

Here's last-year-me with a conclusion as useful as the introduction to close things out:

 

On 12/5/2019 at 3:28 PM, oromendur said:

Here's wishing everyone else success in their holiday challenges! May you have all the cheer you desire, and not a drop more than you can happily handle 🎄

 

 

[TrashcanCarla]

Following!

[Ann of Owlshire]

Glad to have you at the party ❤️ 

[RES]

Having never ventured out of the USA, I can only imagine how much rain that is falling on your head every day from stories I've heard!

Glad to have you here for this years challenge  

[Rurik Harrgath]

7 hours ago, oromendur said:

Every week, I will ask myself two questions: One: did I share some sort of #YuleCheer on Instagram or here? 

 

There are a lot of great things going on here, but of everything you mentioning in your intro... this line alone is by far my favorite.

 

Glad Yule, oromendur!  I hope the Yuletide cheer you spread is repaid unto you tenfold.

 

[Elastigirl]

Here for the Yuletide cheer. I'm approaching Christmastime with the same mindset as you. Have you been out for a walk yet? People in our neighborhood have put up lots of Christmas decorations and lights, and seeing them brings a smile to my face.

[oromendur]

21 hours ago, TrashcanCarla said:

Following!

 

Welcome!

 

20 hours ago, Ann of Owlshire said:

Glad to have you at the party ❤️ 

 

My presence is totally your fault. You were all like "nah holiday challenges are too big and crazy" and I was all like "yeah she's right maybe I'll skip it this year" and then I turned up on the site to browse a bit to kill the jet lag and you were all like "<PICSPAM> <STORYTIME> <CHECK ME OUT I ACTUALLY LIVE IN MIDDLE-EARTH>" and then I was like "poop."

 

So here I am  

 

18 hours ago, RES said:

Having never ventured out of the USA, I can only imagine how much rain that is falling on your head every day from stories I've heard!

Glad to have you here for this years challenge

 

I mean, there are plenty of places in the US where it rains just as much (hello, Alaska, yes, I missed you terribly this year), but my chosen hometown is not one of them, so it was an adventure. I pretty much lived in my Paramo jacket. I haven't yet bought wellie boots but if I ever spend another two months there I just might have to   

 

16 hours ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

Glad Yule, oromendur!  I hope the Yuletide cheer you spread is repaid unto you tenfold.

 

Glad Yule yourself, respected sir! My thread is honored by your presence.

 

 

16 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Here for the Yuletide cheer.

 

Well met and welcome! Cheer is coming soon -- my shiny new tree should be delivered today   In the meantime, here's some sparkle to tide you over:

 

 

Thanks everybody for stopping by!

[Rurik Harrgath]

3 hours ago, oromendur said:

Glad Yule yourself, respected sir! My thread is honored by your presence.

 

 

You've just inspired me to dig out my drinking horn for Yule! 

 

We're making mugs of Butterbeer for a Harry Potter themed Solstice Eve, but I've been thinking about mulled wine or cider for a few days now... and that calls for a horn.   

[Ann of Owlshire]

2 hours ago, oromendur said:

My presence is totally your fault. You were all like "nah holiday challenges are too big and crazy" and I was all like "yeah she's right maybe I'll skip it this year" and then I turned up on the site to browse a bit to kill the jet lag and you were all like "<PICSPAM> <STORYTIME> <CHECK ME OUT I ACTUALLY LIVE IN MIDDLE-EARTH>" and then I was like "poop."

 

So here I am  

 

I accept full blame. 

[Renate]

Following for Yule cheer  That has been my main anti-winter-dip boost last two years but I have had a tough time getting into it this year With family far away and general blegh.

 

Your challenge helps! (Dash and Lilly on Netflix was also very comforting 😶)

[TrashcanCarla]

23 hours ago, Rurik Harrgath said:

 

You've just inspired me to dig out my drinking horn for Yule! 

 

We're making mugs of Butterbeer for a Harry Potter themed Solstice Eve, but I've been thinking about mulled wine or cider for a few days now... and that calls for a horn.   

 

Nice! We meant to buy a pair of nice drinking horns for use at our finer home events, but since we're decreasing our alcohol consumption I think we're going to need to stick to some spicy kombucha for Yule celebrations. That reminds me that I need to get my altar prepped... so much to do!

 

 

How are your PAI scores doing? I'm going to take my little man Odin out for a hilly walk with extra hustle (pushing a 26 pound baby up a hill ain't no joke). My Amazon Halo tracks my efforts using "heart points" based on work done in heart rate zones. I'm aiming for 50+ points today. I think I can swing that. If you haven't gotten outside yet and the air quality is ok in SoCal, go get it!

[oromendur]

Seriously, guys, what is it about this house?? This should not be this [BLEEP]ing hard. Ugh.

 

It doesn't help that I have felt like absolute dog vomit since I got home last Thursday. At first I thought "gosh, the jet lag sure seems to be hitting me harder as I get older." Then, when I forced myself outside for a depressing walk/jog through the winter-sere canyon to try and rescue my tanking PAI score, it was utter misery and I thought "gosh, I really de-acclimatized to SoCal while I was in England." Then on Tuesday I felt like such crap I started to play the "did I catch COVID on the airplane?" game. (I mean, I had no fever or respiratory symptoms and could taste everything just fine -- but sensible rationality isn't exactly a characteristic of that game.) 

 

Finally on Wednesday morning I made the connection: it's the [BLEEP]ING SANTA ANA WINDS. Headache and dehydration? Check. Static electricity everywhere, making my hair and my clothes stick to everything? Check. Irritability? Check. 

 

This crazy-making weather phenomenon has been blowing off and on since Thursday, bringing hot air out of the eastern desert loaded with positive ions and coccidioides spores and all sorts of badness to spin up the wildfires again and cause the lowest relative humidity of the year. The winds have been so bad that some friends of mine had their power cut off for several days as a public safety precaution. So, no, I'm not imagining things (and I probably don't have COVID). T'was just the wind...

 

By Wednesday evening the wind had come back around into the west where it belongs, and I woke up this morning feeling much better. I did my meditation for the mini challenge, puttered around in the kitchen, took a desultory swipe at the holiday grenade explosion cleanup, and then made a cup of tea and sat down to do some writing work for the first time since NaNo ended. 

 

Then the power went out

 

AND of course I could have used that as an excuse to do my daily outside time, but I didn't

 

Anyway. That's probably enough bitching for now. The power is back on, I'm posting here to get all this self-pity bullshit out of  my system, and then I'm going to go have lunch, put all the empty holiday boxes back in the closet, and go the heck outside. At the very least I need to walk up and get the trash bins and bring them back, and I will do my best to find other things to occupy myself for a full ten minutes so I can actually accomplish *something* for the challenge today.

 

There is some #YuleCheer coming, I swear. I hope to be able to take a picture of at least half the living room (a picture that won't embarrass me once it's posted on the internet forever, I mean) sometime tonight.

 

In the meantime, please enjoy my favorite Enya holiday song. Enya is calming and inoffensive and soothing and the internet just went down again while I was in the middle of typing this and I could seriously use some soothing calmness at the moment and I really do like this song.

 

 

[oromendur]

On 12/7/2020 at 10:00 AM, Rurik Harrgath said:

You've just inspired me to dig out my drinking horn for Yule! 

 

We're making mugs of Butterbeer for a Harry Potter themed Solstice Eve, but I've been thinking about mulled wine or cider for a few days now... and that calls for a horn. 

 

On 12/8/2020 at 9:25 AM, TrashcanCarla said:

We meant to buy a pair of nice drinking horns for use at our finer home events

 

Dangit I have things to do and really don't have time to go digging into the back of my disaster of an SCA closet for my drinking horn -- but...hm...I am going to have a go at making homemade Eierpunsch tonight and a horn would be just perfect...

 

On 12/8/2020 at 9:25 AM, TrashcanCarla said:

How are your PAI scores doing? I'm going to take my little man Odin out for a hilly walk with extra hustle (pushing a 26 pound baby up a hill ain't no joke). My Amazon Halo tracks my efforts using "heart points" based on work done in heart rate zones.

 

My scores are hanging in there, mostly on the back of the residuals left over from last week. Come Saturday I'm going to have to get at it again, I'm afraid. I didn't know the Halo had a heart score -- that's interesting! I find heart rate based measurements more helpful than step count ones, for what I'm looking for in a tracker. (Obviously steps work great for lots of people, so mileage of course varies.)

[Rurik Harrgath]

22 hours ago, oromendur said:

Dangit I have things to do and really don't have time to go digging into the back of my disaster of an SCA closet for my drinking horn -- but...hm...I am going to have a go at making homemade Eierpunsch tonight and a horn would be just perfect...

 

umexcusemebutthereisalwaystimefordrinkinghorns  🧐

[oromendur]

Monday? Already? Goodness me these Mondays do seem to come around quickly! I guess that means it's time for a [WEEK ONE UPDATE] on this year's quest for Yule Cheer.

 

Daily goals:

 

PAI: 7/7, well done me. I really do have to work at it a lot harder here at home. With nobody else in the house, it actually becomes a big effort to, you know, get dressed and put on shoes (which really does have to happen before I can go outside). Because of my many sedentary days this week, to keep the numbers up I ended up having to do three longer (well, not that long -- two and a half miles or so) jaunts out through the canyons. I'd hesitate to glorify these sessions with the name 'run,' or even 'jog,' but I did go faster than a walk for at least part of the time each time (because to be perfectly honest I just wanted it to be over and the best time-for-PAI trade involves effort strenuous enough to make me breathe harder than a walk usually does). I really do miss the green hills of Shropshire (and the easy and enjoyable daily PAI score they gave me) something terrible.

 

Outside: 7/7, well done me again, although to be fair there were a few days where this was more of a 'letter' thing than a 'spirit' one. (I think it was Tuesday, the day I felt like such crap, that I took my whole ten minutes just to walk to the mailbox and back.) Working on the PAI helped, and I also had lunch on the deck once, and to be fair I actually did do some driveway cleanup for the first time in, well, I don't know, but I don't actually remember doing it at least in the last two years (sigh). I think that making the goal a very loose one -- GET OUTSIDE -- might prove in the future a decent way to do an end run around the vortex of overwhelm surrounding the hopeless state of my dilapidated hobbit hole. Anyway, it got me to do some stuff, and I'm glad.

 

Weekly goals:

 

#YuleCheer: IG posts Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat. I struggled to make them cheery, because I struggled to make things happen, because my house is a vortex of 'don't-wanna' and I tumbled into it headfirst. I guess I kind of knew I would, because this challenge was (probably a bit unconsciously) designed to counter this horrible tendency of mine. But I got it done.

 

Yuletide: This was a LOT harder than it really should have been. I had in my mind that the task was to decorate for the holidays. After I'd committed myself to this course of action, decision fatigue set in almost immediately. I spent a distressing amount of time during this last week just sitting on the floor staring blankly at mess. But, reading over my actual task, it appears that all I really needed to do to make the grade was to put up a tree I actually put up two! Spoiler for descriptions and pictures:

Spoiler

 

I'm pretty sure that some of the boxes I hauled down from the upstairs closet haven't been opened since I packed them away in North Carolina, which would have been, um, 1999? But, no, now that I think of it, I did two back-to-back winter deployments in 1997 and 1998 and then moved in the summer of 1999, so the box with the tree in it would have been packed after Christmas 1996

 

Anyway, I wasn't even sure I still had that old tree, so (to make sure I followed through on this task) I bought a new one, and it went up in the living room. Here's a photo of the now-festive part of that room (the part that is't still a gigantic cluttered mess, I mean):

 

 

Between stuff my Dad gave me for my first house, stuff I ended up with after my Grandma died, and stuff I've picked up at various Weihnachtsmärkte over the years, I have a LOT of holiday decorations. It seemed a shame to not use at least some of them, so I cleared out part of my dining room too. Here's the table (again, the mess has been carefully cropped out):

 

 

Here's a close-up of my seriously-how-many-Glühwein-mugs-does-a-girl-who-lives-alone-really-need mug tree:

 

 

Here's what a somewhat neglected piano looks like when it becomes the default home for various unattached decorations:

 

 

Even the big wardrobe that dominates the room decided to get into the spirit of things:

 

 

And then, because it turned out I actually did have that vintage-1995 tree, and because there wasn't actually anything *wrong* with it (well, besides the fact that no one will ever mistake it for anything natural), and because I had enough beautiful handmade and meaningful things to fill the main tree without using any of the cheap but memorable ornaments I bought for my first Christmas in my first house lo those many years ago, and because my bedroom is ENORMOUS, I went ahead and put up a tree in there too:

 

 

 

So, despite the difficulty I had with it, I'm going to call this week's Yuletide task a success  For the first time since I bought this house in 2009, I have decorated for the holidays. This is actually a pretty big win.

 

Of course, I leave on Thursday, and when I get back it will be time to take it all down  Still, before I leave I would like very much to tackle at least part of the ridiculous messes that take up the space between all of those carefully-staged photos. To be able to return, full of New Year energy, to a place that makes me smile instead of shudder? That would be a huge gift from bloodied 2020-me to possibly-hopeful 2021-me. I'm going to try hard to make it happen. Wish me luck...

 

 

[oromendur]

On 12/11/2020 at 9:24 AM, Rurik Harrgath said:

umexcusemebutthereisalwaystimefordrinkinghorns  🧐

 

dudeseriouslyyouhaven'tseenmycloset

 

ohallrightfine

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIucFbFAOfF/

 

 

[oromendur]

Mini-challenge gratitude journal, day 1:

 

This week's mini is an excellent reminder that I'm overall a much better person when I maintain a gratitude practice. Since I do think public accountability is important, but since I also feel more comfortable sharing my gratitude meditations in the (relative) privacy of my thread instead of the big raucous party of the main one, I'll try to post what I'm counting in the challenge here each day.

 

Today I feel sincere gratitude for:

 

- A fortuitous financial decision I made when I was younger (seriously it was just this side of pure luck) which is currently keeping me (just barely) afloat in the stormy waters of jobless uncertainty 

 

- Friends in far places who like me well enough to serve as enablers for my broke-but-willing wanderlust

 

- The unkillable spider plant that always greets me happily when I return home, no matter how many months I've left it neglected and alone

[Rurik Harrgath]

2 hours ago, oromendur said:

dudeseriouslyyouhaven'tseenmycloset

 

Fear not the darkness!  🤣

 

2 hours ago, oromendur said:

- The unkillable spider plant that always greets me happily when I return home, no matter how many months I've left it neglected and alone

 

Houseplants surely are our truest friends.

 

My (frighteningly grownup experimental) 6' bamboo palm named Brigitte similarly greets me at the door.   

[oromendur]

Mini-challenge gratitude journal, day 2

 

For what am I sincerely grateful this morning?

 

- My cozy curly sheepskin I bought on a trip to Sweden and then carted along through another four weeks of travel before making it home; it is the best thing ever to to snuggle into when I wake up on a chilly morning

 

- Friends..so many friends...my friends here are as amazing as the ones far away

 

- My many memories of my grandparents, particularly my grandmothers, all of whom I was blessed to know well into my adulthood

 

- The absolutely ridiculous string of posh cluster holiday tree lights I bought at a garden center in Sittard back in the day, which are so very extra that they make me smile every time I look at my tree

 

- Custom maps of Christmas songs in Beat Saber

[sarakingdom]

2 hours ago, oromendur said:

My cozy curly sheepskin I bought on a trip to Sweden and then carted along through another four weeks of travel before making it home; it is the best thing ever to to snuggle into when I wake up on a chilly morning

 

I have one on my couch. I haven't quite got over the "is it safe to touch it, or will I mess it up" stage, but it is super nice to have in my collection of soft couch things.

[RES]

On 12/14/2020 at 2:47 PM, oromendur said:

Here's a close-up of my seriously-how-many-Glühwein-mugs-does-a-girl-who-lives-alone-really-need mug tree:

 

Looks like almost enough!

 

On 12/14/2020 at 2:55 PM, oromendur said:

dudeseriouslyyouhaven'tseenmycloset

 

ohallrightfine

Love this so much!

 

[Sylvaa]

Dropping in to just say that, mess cropped out or not, decorated or not, I love your house. 

 

Also, as someone who is super non-committal about Christmas decorations, I love all of the beautiful pieces you've picked up along your travels.

[Teros]

On 12/15/2020 at 11:15 AM, oromendur said:

- Custom maps of Christmas songs in Beat Saber

And what custom songs are there?

 

 

I imagine this would be nightmare difficulty.

[Rurik Harrgath]

Swinging by to wish you a Happy Yuletide and nothing but light and magic going forward as the days begin to lengthen as the sun begins its rebirth!

 

Skal to kith and kin!

 

 

Hopefully the sun beckons a better year with it too 🤣

[Ann of Owlshire]

Happy Solstice! Here’s to the return of the light! ❤️